Walgreens July Sales Increase 4.7 Percent; Comp-Store Sales 2.7% vs 3.3% Est

Walgreens WAG WAG had July sales of $5.82 billion, an increase of 4.7 percent from $5.56 billion for the same month in 2010. Total front-end sales increased 6.8 percent in July, while comparable store front-end sales increased 4.8 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 1.4 percent and basket size increased 3.4 percent. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased 1.3 percent in July. Calendar day shifts in July, which had one additional Sunday and one fewer Thursday compared with July 2010, negatively impacted prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 2.2 percentage points. July pharmacy sales increased 2.7 percent, while comparable pharmacy sales increased 1.5 percent. Calendar day shifts negatively impacted pharmacy sales in comparable stores by 2.2 percentage points. Comparable pharmacy sales were also negatively impacted by 1.9 percentage points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months. Pharmacy sales accounted for 64.5 percent of total sales for the month.